Mineola's Olympos Auto Service in Mineola, NY Not Going Anywhere

Olympos Auto Service has weathered many storms in its 24 years in Mineola.

When a fire destroyed the original location at 449 Jericho Turnpike in August 2007, Mike Maragopoulos and his cousin George Monoyos got a new shop open just down the road, at 400 Jericho Turnpike, three months later.

When Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, they closed their repair shop to make sure everyone who needed gasoline could get it.

Mike Maragopoulos checks a tire at his Olympos Auto Service shop, located at 400 Jericho Turnpike. The shop is one of three he runs with his cousin, George Monoyos.

Noah Manskar

When the Williston Times erroneously published a picture of the shop alongside two articles about a 7-Eleven store proposed for 400 E. Jericho Turnpike, several concerned customers called and asked why they were shutting their doors.

But those customers should not worry about Olympos, Maragopoulos said, because it’s not going anywhere.

Maragopoulos and Monoyos, natives of Astoria, Queens, have both loved cars since they were young. Along with Monoyos’ brother, they opened their first auto repair shop in Floral Park in 1987.

Taking in people’s broken cars and fixing them gave them a sense of satisfaction, Maragopoulos said.

“It felt good when a car came in the shop broken and we fixed it,” he said. “A car coming in with an issue and all of a sudden, we fixed it — it just makes you feel right.”

Maragopoulos and Monoyos expanded to Mineola in 1991, opening Olympos at the original 449 Jericho Turnpike location. Monoyos’ brother kept running the Floral Park location, but they had to sell it after he was diagnosed with ALS.

They continued to expand, though, and they now have three repair shops in the village — two across the street from each other at 397 and 400 Jericho Turnpike, and a third at 263 E. Jericho Turnpike, which Monoyos runs.

Customer service is the top priority at every Olympos location, Maragopoulos said.

The shop offers warranties for all its services, and Maragopoulos allows customers to get work done on credit if they cannot afford to pay for it right away.

Even if they don’t pay him back on time, Maragopoulos said he would rather be sure his customers are satisfied and that their cars are safe.

“We make our customers feel like they’re family,” he said. “We friend our customers. We don’t want our customers to feel like we just want them for their business.”

After seeing a few lukewarm reviews on Yelp and Google two years ago, Maragopoulos partnered with review site SureCritic to survey his customers and get accurate, honest feedback.

Since starting Olympos’s SureCritic profile, the shop has garnered 469 reviews with an average of 4.9 stars out of five.

“If there’s an issue with anything we have done or if there’s an upset customer, we do everything in our power to rectify it,” Maragopoulos said.

Mineola has been very supportive of their business over the years and has become the cousins’ “home away from home,” Maragopoulos said.

They give back to the community by donating to local organizations, such as the fire department and the police auxiliary, sponsoring youth baseball teams. They have also hosted a Boy Scouts car wash fundraiser in the Olympos parking lot.

“It just makes us feel good, the community supporting us for all these years,” Maragopoulos said. “We don’t only take; we also give.”